westbowpress.com
For years, Brad LeRoy felt the stomach pain. Went to various doctors. Ate out of a blender some of the time.
About 10 years in, amid a spell of rapid double-digit weight loss, he stepped down from the Hancock County church he pastored. It was a church he’d pastored for more than 15 years. A church he’d founded with his wife. A church they loved.
At home, with a three-hour IV to receive and no sermon deadline, he grabbed an iPad and began to make notes.
It was a personal journey, an attempt to process what had happened, and still happens. Yet from that personal journaling began to emerge something that could perhaps be shared. It looked like a six-part sermon series.
“Why am I laying out a sermon series when I’m no longer a pastor?” he thought.
Then it became a book.
‘I NEEDED SOMETHING’
LeRoy stepped down as pastor of Harvest Church in Buck Creek Township in early 2023. The congregation had been supportive — mowing his grass, giving him a Vitamix, watching the LeRoy children when they were young — but he felt he could no longer juggle leadership and his health journey. “I didn’t think it was fair to the church you love, to the people you love,” he said.
“Pastor Brad and his family stepped out in faith 15 years ago to launch Harvest Church in McCordsville,” wrote Mark Gorveatte in a blog post at the time. Gorveatte is superintendent of the Crossroads District of The Wesleyan Church. “In spite of battling health challenges for the last 10 years, Rev. LeRoy has led the church to have significant impact in their community.”
At home in that community, LeRoy reflected on the life of Job. Namesake of a Bible book, in those chapters Job loses children, livestock and health but does not lose faith in God.
LeRoy also pondered the words of a prayer Jesus shared with his disciples in the Bible’s Gospel of Matthew (chapter 6, verses 9–13). It’s often referred to as “The Lord’s Prayer” by Protestants or “The Our Father” by Catholics.
“I really started to dial into pain,” LeRoy said. “What does it mean to walk through pain? I needed something practical to go to … the go-to guy on suffering and pain in Scripture is Job.”
LeRoy realized pain comes at people from different angles, in different ways. Job experiences that: the health crisis of a body covered with sores, the emotional toll of his children’s deaths, the financial hit of stolen livestock. His relationships are challenging, too; friends show up and ponder what Job did to deserve his problems, and his wife advises him to curse God and die.
‘CAMP OUT THERE’
LeRoy said different facets of Jesus’ prayer can speak to those different types of pain — asking for God’s will to be done, even when life is hard and/or baffling; saying “give us this day our daily bread” when facing financial struggles; or praying about forgiveness in a season when relationships are challenging.
“The Lord’s Prayer speaks to that,” he said. “Job, years before, lived that all out.”
Now, LeRoy invites readers to see the prayer as a resource. He’s begun to pray it daily.
“At any given moment, most people are going through” some form of pain, he said. “Pray the entire prayer, and wherever your pain is present, camp out there.”
He hopes people who read his book will realize they’re not alone their pain and that they can find hope even in the middle of it.
‘HE WILL GO WITH US’
As LeRoy says this, he’s only a couple of weeks removed from his latest surgery. It’s No. 14 since his gastrointestinal issues began in 2013. He has a doctor’s appointment the next day. And he no longer has a large intestine; that was one of the other surgeries.
“I’m in the middle of it,” he said. “I’ve not come out the other side.”
Yet, along the way, people have reached out to him. They have a family member facing a similar surgery; would he help that person know what to expect? Another person lays down a binder and says, “I know you’re a pastor” and asks if they can talk for a bit.
Someone else’s child is about to undergo such a surgery; could he stop by and pray with that family? That he’s next door at his own appointment and can go right over is not lost on him.
“It redeems it a little bit: ‘God, if you can use this or repurpose it in the life of someone else …,’” he said.
He refers to another Bible verse, this one in the Gospel of John: “… In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (16:33).
He hopes people who read the book will also, amid their pressing problems, notice the presence of God.
“We can find this peace that he will go with us into the pain and suffering of life.”
ABOUT THE BOOK
Brad LeRoy’s “What’s the Plan? Your Pain, God’s Purpose” is published by WestBow Press and available in soft cover or ebook formats. Find it at https://www.westbowpress.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/856974-whats-the-plan, or christianbook.com, or Amazon.
